Eve's Boutique - Ch 19

 Sherpa

It was a long time before Abigail was able to pick herself up off the floor.  She surveyed the giant classroom.  Her head was barely above the level of desks – so strange, considering she was too big to fit in any of them an hour before.  It was hard to think, so hard.  Her thoughts were slow, incomplete.  Something Mackenzie had done.  Something she’d taken.

Eve.  She had to get to Eve.

She grabbed her backpack, and found it was almost impossibly heavy.  She could barely move it, let alone carry it.  Abigail rooted through the bag frantically, tugging things out, throwing them to the ground.  Notebooks, two textbooks, pens, loose change.  She dumped out everything – except the bottle Eve had given her.  It was a struggle, but she finally managed to hoist the bag onto her shoulders.

The sun was dazzlingly bright outside.  Everywhere, gigantic students walked in random directions.  None of them paid her the slightest attention, and something told Abigail they wouldn’t, even if they ran her down.  The whole world was a minefield now, full of careless giants who would pay her no mind.

She ventured onto the sidewalk, trying to look everywhere at once.  A bike rode by, its tires higher than her armpits, and she barely managed to jump out of the way.  She bumped into a giantess, walking by as she talked on her phone, who didn’t even bother to look down to see her.

This was hopeless.  She was so weak now, and Eve’s shop was miles from here.  And suddenly she realized – she didn’t even know which way to go.  Or for that matter, how to navigate the campus around her.  She was completely lost.

Someone knocked against her.  Then another, catching her on the back of the head.  She stumbled, trying to keep her balance, but what was the point?  It would be easier to let herself fall….

A giant hand grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Oh hey, there you are, Abby.”

Elijah.  Beautiful, gigantic Elijah.  Towering all the way up to the sky, smiling that dopey smile of his down at her.

“I was waiting for you at the diner.  I was gonna order you some fries or something, but I didn’t know whether you’d want regular or crinkle-cut, and they have this new spicy salt that’s pretty good, but not everyone’s cup of tea, so I thought….”

She rushed forward, wrapped her arms around him, hugged him tight, burying her face against his thigh.

“Aw.  Hugs are nice.  I didn’t know I needed that, thanks.”

Abigail took a deep breath, steadying herself, then stepped back until she could look him in the eye.  She held up both her hands, signaling his attention.  She pointed to her throat, shaking her head.  No words, she mouthed.

“Charades.  Fun.  First word.  Hungry.  You’re… hungry, right?”

She grimaced, and shook her head.  Pointing to her chest, drawing a finger up along the line of her throat.  No words.  No words.

“Not hungry.  Um.  You’ve… got a sore throat?”

Abigail pressed her hands together, and forced the frustration out of her expression.  She nodded.  That was progress, at least.

“Aw, sorry to hear that.  Maybe a milkshake would be good?  I always find that helps after I blow out my voice practicing coyote howls.  Ah that’s a no?  Okay.  Pointing.  You want to go.  You want to go… somewhere.  Where do you want to go?  The… diner.  A different diner.  A pizza parlor.  Hot or cold?”

She tried to think.  How exactly was she supposed to signal that she wanted to go to a magic potion shop – especially when she had no idea where it was?

“Home.  You want to go home?”

Abigail frowned, considering.  She nodded.

“Ah gotcha.  We’ll take a rain check on the diner then.  It was nice seeing you, Abby.  I’ll catch ya later.”

He started to walk away.

She ran after him, reached up, grabbed him by the shirt.

“Sorry.  You need something?”

She held up her hand in a stop gesture.  Pointed first to him, then to herself.  Then at last off into the distance.

Elijah’s giant face scrunched in thought.  “You want me to take you home?”

She nodded emphatically.

“Got it, that makes total sense.  I always appreciate someone taking care of me when I don’t feel good.  Or like, a few weeks ago?  When that goose bit me?  Geese have way more teeth than you’d expect, by the way.  Anyway, my friends came over, and they barely made fun of me, and I felt a lot better after.  It wasn’t the goose’s fault by the way.  See, what happened was….”

She reached up and took his hand.  For the second time that day, they walked hand-in-hand across campus.  This time, she was the one finding herself completely lost in his grip.

At the train station, the two stood together outside the turnstile.  The central campus stop was a major hub, and hundreds of people bustled all around them.  This place was practically a shooting gallery for someone as tiny and unnoticeable as her.  She never could’ve navigated it alone.

“Okay.  So which one is your train?  What’s your stop?”

Abigail froze.  A look of terror came over her face as she tried to wrack her memory.  She felt sluggish and stupid, trying to make her brain do the most simple task.  Come on!  She had done this a thousand times!  Could she really not remember?

“No problem.  Happens to me all the time.  When I get lost, I usually text my neighbor Wendy.  She reminds me where I live.  Do you want to text one of your friends?”

Of course!  Why didn’t she think to do that in the first place?  Abigail set her bag down, and began to search through it.  She found Eve’s gift… and nothing else.  The sudden realization struck her: she’d been wearing nothing but a bedsheet when she left this morning.  She could’ve stuffed her phone in her bag, but she was used to wearing jeans, and she’d been excited to see Eve, and….

The phone was on her bedside table at home.

Even so, she kept searching her backpack, panicking.  It wasn’t in here.  She should stop.  But she kept going through each pocket frantically.  Over and over, one by one.

And finally, from an unused side pocket, she withdrew the gold-leafed card with Mackenzie’s phone number.

Sheepishly, she handed it to Elijah.

“‘Mackenzie Nole Wants to See You Naked,’” he read.  “Huh.  She gave this to you?  That’s neat.”

Abigail buried her face in her hands.

Elijah punched the number into his phone.

“Oh hey – Mackenzie, right?  This is… yeah it is Elijah, how’d you know?  No, Abigail gave me your number.  Uh-huh.  She’s here.”  He pulled the phone away from his ear.  “She says thank you.”

Abigail made a get-on-with-it gesture up at the giant.

“Oh.  I was calling to find out where you live.  Abigail’s not feeling well, and I’m taking her home.”  He looked at Abigail.  “She wants to know if she should come get you?”

The tiny woman shook her head so hard she almost fell over.

“Nah, I’ve got it.  I guess she doesn’t have her cell phone.  I – oh.  Yeah, you can add me.  Still on for Saturday?”

Elijah went silent for several seconds.  His expression remained neutral, but one of his eyebrows went up.  “That’s ah.  Quite the invitation.  No, I’ve already got dinner plans tonight.  I’m sure we’ll run into each other.  Okay bye.”

He hung up, and stared off into the middle distance.  “Your roommate is ah.  Really affectionate, huh?”

Abigail rolled her eyes.

“She’s been trying to reach you, I guess.  There’s some kinda group chat for your party?  It’s getting pretty big, and she said she’s having trouble typing on her phone.  She wants your help with it.  I guess she was pretty worried when you weren’t answering.  Anyway.  Let’s get you home.  I’m guessing you don’t have your wallet either?”

Abigail patted her pockets.  It was such a blessing that the crop top and jeans Eve gave her still fit perfectly, despite being less than half of Elijah’s height.  But, no wallet.

“It’s okay, I got you.”

The train wasn’t quite full in the early afternoon.  The two of them were able to find a seat together.  Her feet dangled high above the floor as she sat behind him.  When the car took off, she instinctively reached out, grabbing Elijah for support.  That felt good, so she kept holding on.  A few stops later, she had her arms wrapped around him, her head buried against his chest.

“Bad day, huh?”

She nodded, and gripped him tighter.

Elijah put his arm around her.  He felt heavy, and strong, and warm, and good.

He fished his phone out of his pocket, held it up where she could see.  “More ferret pics?”

The walk from the train station to her apartment wasn’t a long one, but she was utterly exhausted.  She thought about gesturing for him to carry her, but decided it would be too weird.  He didn’t seem to mind the slow pace she set, though.  Elijah just held her hand, telling her stories from his seemingly endless well of adventures with the neighborhood wildlife.  She felt safe with him.  Enough so that it made her drowsy.  When she got home, she was going to sleep for a week.

At last they were home.  Elijah buzzed her apartment, and after a few moments she heard heavy footfalls on the stairs.  The door swung open, and there was Chloe.  The amazonian woman had apparently decided to go the bedsheet route today, too.

She ducked down, slipping her head beneath the door frame.

“Oh!  Elijah, right?  From brunch the other day?  Is there something I can do for you?”

“Just keeping Abby company.  She doesn’t feel good.”

Chloe looked down – and gasped.  “Oh my God!  Abigail!  What happened to you?”

Chloe could tell she was different.  Chloe could tell!  A wave of relief hit Abigail so hard, she almost fell to her knees.  If Elijah hadn’t been holding her, she very well might have.

“She’s got a sore throat,” the giant said.  “And I think she’s hungry.”

“You don’t understand.  She’s not….”  Chloe composed herself.  “Thank you, Elijah.  So much.”

Abigail nodded.  And hugged him again.

“No problem, happy to do it.  So uh, want me to come in for a minute?  I can hang out.”

Chloe gave Abigail an appraising glance, narrowing her eyes at the woman who was far less than half her size.  “No.  Another time, I think.  The two of us need to have a little girl talk.”

“Gotcha.  See you Friday, Abby.  Feel better.”

Without a word, Chloe picked her up.  She carried the tiny woman up the three flights to their apartment.  By the time they were inside, Abigail was crying.  This time, her tears were grateful.  Almost refreshing.

Chloe had her.  She was home.